Guide to Thomas Aquinas

Pieper mastefully gets inside of the thinking of St Thomas and of the milieu. He shows how the mendicant orders were a response to a special historical situation, in particular, the advent of albigensianism and catharism, movements which, whilst heretical, underlined the importance of evangelical poverty. Pieper shows why Aquinas is great, how he synthesised revelation given through the Bible with his natural philosophy built on the foundation of Aristotle and of Plato. He wonderfully shows Aquinas a a person who is in a state of almost child like wonder at the beauty of creation. He shows also that Aquinas, through his disputatio method of penetrating the truth, was the master of dialogue. And, yet after such masterful work, Aquinas following a mystical vision, sees his whole work as merely straw and stops! A criticism made by some of Aquinas is that he foreshadows the modern atheist in that he looks to nature to seek the Divine hand at work and thus forumlates his proof of God. But, that is fairly lame criticism. There seems to be a hint in the book that Aquinas pre-empts secularism. But, it is important to remember that, for Aquinas, the answers concering the whole of being are given through both revelation and the natural world.

Josef Pieper does a wonderful job of making Thomas Aquinas understandable. He does it by broadly covering several important aspects: the first is framing the time in which he lived from a historical point of view, second he presents some biographical facts about Thomas and who is was as a man, thirdly he presents the situation of the Church and the Dominicans at the time, and then he masterfully blends in the most important concepts that Thomas Aquinas contributed to the world. He doesn't go into too much depth on his theology or philosopy - this would kill the average reader like me. But his does provide enough details to start your intellect moving forward which is wonderful. It left me with the feeling I've learned a lot, yet and now thirsty for more which is very rare in a book. I would not guess this is a book for a high level theology/philosophy student unless he was in a level 101 class. That being said it's full of wonderful insights. I would say this is for an advanced lay person who is really starting to learn more about his spiritual life and also more about what has structured church thinking for centuries. A 'must have' for an advanced Catholic library in your home. Also, this is a book recommend in James Schall's "Another Sort of Learning" which is another wonderful book.

This book is one of the essential studies of St. Thomas's life and thought. It is especially valuable because it preserves some of the profound insights of two other Thomists whose books have either never been translated into English (Grabmann) or are, alas, out-of-print (Chenu). Pieper's treatment of St. Thomas's (and Aristotle's) use of language is absolutely essential reading for beginning students of Aquinas who have not read the more thorough treatments (by Chenu and Blanche - now largely forgotten) upon which it is based. Pieper also captures better than most biographers the importance of Thomas's decision to embrace both of the apparently opposed movements of his day, the back-to-the-Bible movement of the mendicant orders and, the modern, scientific movement of Aristotelianism.There are a few points on which I think Pieper is wrong, most importantly on the question of Thomas's "Aristotelianism." In his justifiable attempt to show that Thomas is not an unqualified Aristotelian, Pieper goes too far the other direction and leaves the reader with the impression that Thomas was a defender of Plato. Especially troubling is Pieper's citation of passages from Thomas's Commentaries on Aristotle's De Anima and Metaphysics, which he, Pieper, claims defend Plato against Aristotle's criticisms: I cannot figure out how Pieper could construe the cited passages in such a way. Also, Pieper's criticism of the Inquistion, the Dominican order's role in it, and Thomas's defense of it seems surprisingly naive coming from an author steeped in the history of the Church. But these are relatively minor flaws in an otherwise worthy study of St. Thomas.My rating of other books on St. Thomas: (1) Josef Pieper, The Silence of St. Thomas. ***** One of the very best books on St. Thomas Aquinas; see my ... review. (2) G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox. ***** A justly acclaimed popular account of the life and work of St. Thomas; a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for student and general reader alike. (3) Marie-Dominique Chenu O.P., Toward Understanding St. Thomas. ***** THE indispensible work for every serious student; sadly, out-of-print. (4) Ralph McInerny, St. Thomas Aquinas. **** A scholarly introduction to Thomas's philosophical thought, which emphasizes Aquinas's indebteness to Aristotle and Boethius. (5) Jean-Pierre Torrell O.P., St. Thomas Aquinas: the Person and his Work. **** Currently the standard scholarly biography.

This is a very difficult book that will help you to understand St Thomas philosophy. It turns very slow, sometimes.

Pieper is an excellent writer and has done extensive research on Thomas Aquinas. Even though the book does not give an in-depth discussion of Thomas's philosophy, it does give an excellent account of Thomas's life and the cultural background of the Medieval period which Aquinas both embodied and transcended. It does, however, go over the most basic concepts of Thomas's philosophy (the five ways, for example).